Akasen Chitai / Yokihi (Street of Shame / Empress Yank Kwei Fei) [Masters Of Cinema] [UK import, Region 2 PAL DVD]

Akasen Chitai / Yokihi (Street of Shame / Empress Yank Kwei Fei) [Masters Of Cinema] [UK import, Region 2 PAL DVD] Review

Akasen Chitai / Yokihi (Street of Shame / Empress Yank Kwei Fei) [Masters Of Cinema] [UK import, Region 2 PAL DVD] Feature

• Digital Stereo
• No Regional Coding
• Auto Start
• Auto Repeat
• 4 Hours

2 x disc special edition containing new transfers of both films. New and improved English subtitles. Full length Akasen Chitai audio commentary and a video discussion about Yokihi by acclaimed Japanese film expert/critic, festival programmer, and filmmaker Tony Rayns. Original theatrical trailers. 64-page booklet featuring writing by Keiko I. McDonald (author of Mizoguchi), Mark Le Fanu (author of Mizoguchi and Japan), Masako Nakagawa (author of The Yang Kuei-fei Legend in Japanese Literature), ninth-century poetry (A Song of Unending Sorrow) by Po Chü-i, and rare production stills. YOKIHI (EMPRESS YANK KWEI FEI): In eighth century China, the Emperor is grieving over the death of his wife. The Yang family wants to provide the Emperor with a consort so that they may consolidate their influence over the court. General An Lushan finds a distant relative working in their kitchen whom they groom to present to the Emperor. The Emperor falls in love with her and she becomes the Princess Yang Kwei-fei. The Yangs are then appointed important ministers, though An Lushan is not given the court position he covets. The ministers misuse their power so much that there is a popular revolt against all the Yangs, fueled by An Lushan. AKASEN CHITAI (STREET OF SHAME): Five prostitutes work at Dreamland, in Tokyo's Yoshiwara district. As the Diet considers a ban on prostitution, the women's daily dramas play out. Each has dreams and motivations. Hanae is married, her husband unemployed; they have a young child. Yumeko, a widow, uses her earnings to raise and support her son, who's now old enough to work and care for her. The aging Yorie has a man who wants to marry her. Yasumi saves money diligently to pay her debt and get out; she also has a suitor who wants to marry her, but she has other plans for him. Mickey seems the most devil-may-care, until her father comes from Kobe to bring her news of her family and ask her to come home.